UPDATE – 2/15/15 – Well our boat is back in the water. Good as new, and we’re going to try a few different lakes around the state. That was a rude awakening. We could have been gator bait. Do any of you guys actually still go and fish through holes in the ice? I recall fishing for Perch through a hole at Lake Simcoe when I was probably around 8. My Dad, Randy and I walked out half way to Snake Island and set up chairs and fished for a while. I was whining too much about my feet freezing, so my Dad tossed me the car keys and told me to go warm up in the car. A few hours later he came to pack it in and found me almost frozen to death in the car because I didn’t know that you had to start the car to get heat out of the heater.

1/13/15 – A bad day fishing is better than a great day at the office….. Elaine and I took our new boat out on Lake Rousseau last Monday. It is known as the best Bass Fishing lake in Florida (no Trout in Florida), and we wanted to give it a try. It was an hour and a half drive and it was a little overcast and choppy but we gave it a go. We were on the lake 20 minutes, with the boat tossing around a bit when we heard a thump. Apparently there was a stump under the surface that we couldn’t see and we bumped it hard. A minute later, Elaine blurted out, “Oh my God….. look!” I turned to see a wave of water rushing into the back of the boat. I immediately yanked the anchor up, which was heavy with weeds and then cranked up our 50 horsepower Yamaha engine to get us out of there before we sank. I started slowly heading for the marked channel but the back end was getting lower and lower and the water was rushing in, so I cranked her up to full throttle and headed for the boat ramp where our car was parked. We made it back and I ran up to the car, backed it down the ramp and winched the boat out of the water, pulled the plugs and let it drain on the ramp. Then we drove the hour and a half home and ate humble pie for dinner instead of fresh Bass. Today I took the boat into a local Marina to get it fixed up so we can try again.

No Trout! I would have to live near the ocean in that case….as there’s (sea) trout there. I watched a show where they were catching them on the West coast of Florida near Sarasota. Sorry about the boat Ron, that must of been scary, glad it ended ok.

Well yes… we are 20 minutes away from catching all the sea trout we could possibly want. I went out there with my Dad a few years back and we caught about 100 trout between 14 & 18 inches in a couple of hours (on flies) but the meat is white and mushy. We threw them all back. Nothing like fresh water brookies!